I’ve known about this site for some time but never bothered to become a member. Sure, I have use for a good flashlight like anyone else, but a forum about them? Come on, it can’t be that interesting?
All I have is a 2x18650 zoom light, two 1x18650 zoom lights with replaced drivers and modified casings for wider beam, another 1x18650 zoom that’s waiting for ordered 2800mAh driver and XML-U3 LED (supposedly), a bike/headlamp with a handmade 4x18650 battery case/pack, a 1x18650 thrower, and I’m waiting on parts for my first build (1x18650 Convoy C8 host, XML-U3 LED, 2800mAh driver, SMO reflector and an AR coated lens)…
The Convoy C8 is a very nice well built host :-). I have two Convoy C8's that I am going to mod for two friends of mine. Myself I like the Ultrafire C8 host from Fasttech a bit better because it comes with a smooth reflector, it accepts the 'standard' C8 pills from my Uniquefire UF-T20, the C8 extension and the C8 pills that are for sale separately.
Hi Mike, you’re in the right place if you’re looking to turn cheap budget hosts into expensive useful flashlights! lol I’ve recently discovered the C8 myself, really like it. Played around with a few and made a thread about it in an effort to see what the different choices bring to the table. Maybe you’ll find it and find it useful.
Here ya go 2014 Cree Trifecta Lots of stuff, data, beamshots, chat. I finally put a screenshot of the spreadsheet at the bottom of the original post, there’s also a link to the actual if you want a cleaner image to deal with.
Might give you some good ideas as to what you will want in your C8. I would have liked to go even further and test AR lenses and smooth reflectors, but the money just kept going the wrong direction on that one and the general idea was supassed so I think it serves it’s purpose.
I’m a photgrapher, so rgb is a way of life (red,green,blue) So I made everything in reference to the XP-G2 in light red, everything in reference to the XM-L2 in light green, and everything in reference to the MT-G2 in light blue. Small Medium and Large, for the sizes of the emitters.
I chose the MT-G2 to do a comparison of the stock aluminum pill vs Ryan’s copper pill as it makes the most heat and would have the most thermal issues. I’m not a charts/graphs/spreadsheet kind of guy, so this was a new experience and I might have muddied it up a little. Sorry to all if so.
Thanks for the link, I have yet to read through it all. But I noticed on your chart that all of your drivers are QLite. I’m rather new to all this and I’m unfamiliar with QLite. I guess they are considered to be very good? Is this a stock driver that can be purchased or is it a modded/custom driver by someone here? The driver I have been using is a 8* AMC7135 Nanjg 105c driver rated at 2800mAh on FastTech, mostly because I like the mode configuration.
I do a bit of photography myself. My interest in flashlights started from photography as I’ve been using them for light painting in dark places.
The driver is by choice, it's a 105c based driver at 3.04A utilizing 380 binned chips and coming from Intl-Outdoor in China. Richard at Mountain Electronics has been stocking them here in the states to make it easier for us to procure them. They have no whiny mosquito sounds in low or medium, which is their inherent fame. I use them exclusively, having had bad experiences with my first attempts using other drivers.
Experience has allowed me to stack regulation chips and bump output levels so that I can fairly easily adjust the power level to fit my project.
Thanks for the info. Yet another China shop I didn’t know about. I’ve noticed the high pitch on middle mode on one of three of my current Nanjg drivers. The advantage is that I don’t have to solder the stars to get rid of the blinking modes, but high pitch is worse. In your opinion, are the wires that are already soldered to the Qlite drivers thick enough for 3.04A? Or do you recommend replacing with thicker?
Also, if I may ask, I have not seen many threads of light modding where a XML-U3 is used. Is there a specific reason for that?
Don't have to solder to avoid blinkies in a Qlite, default is a nice 2% 25% 100%, there are 4 options that can be addressed by the stars if so desired.
The stock wires are ok for stock power level, usually upgrade to 22 ga wires as a default because I'm almost always bumping power level to at least 4A.
There haven't been a lot of U3 available until fairly recently, which is probably why you haven't seen much using em. U3 is supposedly the most powerful, but many that mod are tint snobs (like me) and don't want 8000K in their builds. So until some options become available, the use of the U3 will be fairly limited.
Aha… I was not paying attention. The default mode indeed is without blinkies. Sweet! I’ll be ordering some of those
Good point. The one I’ve ordered from FastTech is listed as 6500 to 7000K. I won’t be able to tell how accurate that is but I’ll be comparing it to my other lights with T6 LEDs.
7000K is a pretty good tint to de-dome. Hence the 1A being choice. I’m finding that with the XM-L2 it’s still a bit hit and miss. Hate spending $9 on something that ends up giving me pukey green looking light. Especially when there’s 4 at a time.
